Angelin Preljocaj continues his storytelling exploration by staging a traditional Asian tale. In a refined scenography, Preljocaj offers an explosive and hypnotic choreography in which the imagination soars. The ballet will take you on a journey between the imaginary and the real. Explore impressive, symmetrical and quirky choreography under the electronic music of Nicolas Godin and sumptuous lighting.
To make your experience an unforgettable one, you will be able to choose from a selection of unique add-ons upon booking, such as a glass of champagne and an exclusive programme. See below for more details.
La Fresque (“The Fresco”) is the poetic journey of a man carried away by the fascination with a woman painted on a fresco in a tavern. He ends up breaking into painting to live a happy romance with this woman, before being hunted by warriors.
The French choreographer Angelin Preljocaj mixes the imaginary and real by interpreting fifteen glorious paintings into a dance performed by 10 dancers.
This ballet offers visual exploration through its precise choreography, the lights of Eric Soyer and the sets and videos by Constance Guisset. Prejlocaj combines the poetic force of the Chinese tale with the dreamlike power of dance, offering an amazing experience to spectators.
“Might there be a secret passage that allows us to access the essence of a picture that fascinates us? Did Francis I, one day in Amboise, search for the path that would lead him to Mona Lisa? Did the Prince of Liechtenstein, when he acquired a canvas dating from the 16th century, believe that, if he looked at it assiduously, his imagination would acquire the power to teleport his body to Cranach's Venus?
The Painting on the Wall, inspired by the famous eponymous Chinese story, tells us about this journey into another dimension where the picture becomes a place of transcendence and physical being enters into a relationship with the picture. This question of the picture is at the heart of our investigation. It also evokes Plato's cave and its shadows, which question our existence. The ballet seeks to explore the mysterious relations between representation and reality, sites at which the dance creates the bonds that link the fixed image and movement, instantaneity and duration, the live and the inert. This metaphor running through the Chinese tale raises the question of representation in our civilisation. It speaks to us of the place of art in today's society.”